System and method for document construction
A document construction and management system is described. In one embodiment, documents are assembled by combining one or more modules. In one embodiment, the modules are combined according to one or more construction rules. The modules can be provided to a number of subscribers, each subscriber having one or more users. Access to each of the modules can be controlled on a subscriber basis and/or on a user basis based on different users or user classes. When new modules or new versions of an existing module are added to the database of available modules, access to the new module or version can be restricted until the new modules or versions have been reviewed and accepted. During the review period, the previous version of the module is made available to users for construction of documents. In one embodiment, one or more access rules are used to control which modules are available to which users. In one embodiment, search rules are provided to facilitate searching for a desired module.
1. A document management system which includes a processor and memory, the document management system comprising:
a module database configured to store at least a first module and a second module;
a search engine configured to allow a user to search for modules in said database according to one or more search rules;
an access control engine configured to control access to said first and second modules based on different user classes according to one or more access rules;
a construction engine configured to use one or more of said first and second modules to construct a document according to one or more construction rules so that the document includes content based on the first module and content based on the second module; and
a module review engine configured to allow multiple subscribers to review and approve or reject a new version of said first module during a review period, said construction engine configured to use a prior version of said first module for documents assembled by a subscriber until said new version of the first module has been approved by the subscriber, said document assembly system configured to prohibit the subscriber's access to said prior version of the first module after said review period has expired for the subscriber if the subscriber approves the new version of the first module, wherein the approval or rejection of the new version of the first module by the subscriber does not affect the ability of different subscribers to approve or reject the new version of the first module;
the module review engine further configured to allow multiple subscribers to review and approve or reject a new version of said second module during a review period, said construction engine configured to use a prior version of said second module for documents assembled by a subscriber until said new version of the second module has been approved by the subscriber, said document assembly system configured to prohibit the subscriber's access to said prior version of the second module after said review period has expired for the subscriber if the subscriber approves the new version of the second module, wherein the approval or rejection of the new version of the second module by the subscriber does not affect the ability of different subscribers to approve or reject the new version of the second module.
2. The document management system of claim 1 , wherein said user classes comprise a supervisor user class.
3. The document management system of claim 1 , wherein said user classes comprise a second-level user class.
4. The document management system of claim 1 , wherein said user classes comprise a public user class.
5. The document management system of claim 1 , further comprising one or more access rules to describe how said first and second modules are combined.
6. The document management system of claim 1 , wherein said search rules are configured on a subscriber basis such that each subscriber can define a different set of search rules.
7. The document management system of claim 1 , wherein said search rules comprise one or more default search rules.
8. The document management system of claim 1 , wherein said construction engine uses said construction rules to modify a user-supplied list of modules to produce a document list as an ordered list of modules to be used to construct said document.
9. The document management system of claim 1 , wherein said construction engine adds additional modules to a user-supplied list according to one or more of said construction rules.
10. The document management system of claim 1 , wherein said construction engine reorders modules in a user-supplied list according to one or more of said construction rules.
11. The document management system of claim 1 , wherein said first module comprises source code.
12. The document management system of claim 1 , wherein said first module comprises script code.
13. The document management system of claim 1 , wherein said first module comprises CAD files.
14. The document management system of claim 1 , wherein said first module comprises executable code that is executed to produce at least a portion of said document.
15. The document management system of claim 1 , wherein said first module comprises XML code.
16. The document management system of claim 1 , wherein said first module comprises a word-processing file.
17. The document management system of claim 1 , wherein said first module comprises document text.
18. The document management system of claim 1 , wherein said first module comprises markup language data.